Difference between Java SE & Java EE

Java SE (standard edition) is just the normal specification of Java. Java EE (enterprise edition) is Java with all sorts of add-ons for enterpris-y things like:

• Enterprise JavaBeans;
• Java Persistence API;
• Servlets;
• Java Server Pages.

(not an exhaustive list, more detail available on Wikipedia). You generally get Java SE when you download the SDK (for development) or JRE (for running Java applications).

On the other hand, you generally get all the Java EE goodies when you start using IBM Websphere Application Server, or JBoss, or another enterprise-class application server.

You can download the Oracle Java EE 6 SDK here. The JSR for Java EE 6 is here.

Best way to understand is to read the Java EE tutorials:

• for Java EE 5: here
• for Java EE 6: here